Links

Tags

Subscribe

Monthly Archives: March 2009

We put in the tomatoes, eggplant and some of the hot peppers today. I’ve got 4 more varieties of hot and 3 varieties of sweet peppers coming. They should be here and in sometime in the next week to 10 days.

And THEN, on Thursday I’m going to pick up my train tickets. The trip will be even more real when I have those in my hands. I really can’t wait to board that train and head off into the night.

To make it even more likely that this trip will actually happen, I got asked to be in another drug trial. The last one came up the last time I actually got to go someplace so maybe this is a good sign. If it works out, I’ll be in this one for a year. That’ll mean not having to shell out for my meds for a year and any treatment I need for anything to do with the COPD, they’ll pay for. I’m getting in the early visits now. One will come a couple days before I leave and then I won’t be scheduled to go back in for 9 weeks, giving me time to take my trip and then get over it.

The so-called conservatives would kill to get an abortion ban passed (tongue in cheek on that one) They oppose public funds being used to pay for poor women’s pregnancies or to support children after they are born…to feed, clothe, educate and make sure their health is protected.

BUT

They also oppose public funds being used for birth control…to prevent those conceptions they will not allow to be either terminated or cared for.

And despite their insistance that an unwanted pregnancy should be carried to birth and then released for adoption, you don’t see very many of them with adopted kids, do you? Come to think about it, you don’t see a lot of them as foster parents to the kids they’ve forced into the system.

Strange.

================================================

While my own lettuce is growing I bought some the other day. Advertised as “organic”. But also below “organic” was the label “hydroponicly grown”.

I’m confused. The definition of organic is something grown without chemical fertilizers or pesticides. The definition of hydroponic is something grown without soil in a combination of water and…chemicals. Uh…hello? For this oxymoron they get to charge double? Sorry, but if it’s hydroponic it simply CAN’T be organic. It might be pesticide free but that is the only thing you can truthfully say about it.

Oh, and for those of you buying ‘organic’ milk? The only true organic milk you can buy would be RAW milk, straight out of the cow…a cow that has never had any of the prophylactics for TB or other diseases carried in milk. If the cows have been innoculated and the milk has been processed, it ain’t organic. Save yourself some money. Or find a goat farmer and start using goat’s milk.

One close link left to my days on the road. One of the last links. After 111 years, Amusement Business magazine…the carny’s bible…is gone. Insiders and old timers referred to it as the ‘bible’ or ‘billboard’ and it didn’t matter if you were flat broke…you somehow came up with the money for every weeks’ edition.

It carried info about the newest rides and attractions, route listings for the different shows, help wanted ads and personals. The ads would often read “looking for spider foreman, $xxx per week +2%. prefer sober” (Ride foremen would earn a salary plus a bonus of from 1 to 3% of the gross on that ride if they stayed for a full season. Even back in the 60′s, that could add up to several thousand dollars at one lump sum.)

Rides, joints (games), shows for sale and where they could be seen.

Or “looking for sideshow act. would prefer fat lady/man or true freak but will settle for tattooed sword swallower…must have own swords”. Or “need girls. small tits need not apply”

The personals often had ads “John P. your wife is looking for you and so is the sheriff”.

In the days before email and cell phones, Amusement Business also provided a service to those of us constantly on the move. A mail drop. Once a week on one of the back pages, there would be a list of those who had mail waiting for them. You could have the office call in and tell them where you’d be the next week and the letters would be waiting for you.